This invention generally relates to an improved stretcher for processing pelts of fur bearing animals such as raccoons.
The worth of a raw fur pelt is initially judged by the animal's size, maturity and condition at the time the pelt is taken. After a raw pelt has been fleshed, stretched and dried, its market value, i.e. the price paid to trappers, ranchers and hunters, is determined by the degree to which the pelt exhibits grade excellence or primeness in the opinion of pelt buyers such as dealers and furriers. Primeness, or lack thereof, reflects not only intrinsic pelt quality, but is based also on a subjective evaluation of these additional pelt attributes:
Evidence of skillful and careful pelt preparation and handling; PA1 Surface smoothness and uniformity of each pelt from nose to tail and from side to side; PA1 Absence of hide or fur blemishes due to improper or incomplete drying; and PA1 Substantial uniformity in size and configuration among all pelts in any group of pelts being evaluated.
After the primeness or grade of a pelt has been established in light of the above-listed criteria, the price paid for an individual raccoon pelt, for example, is calculated having particular regard for the length of that portion of the pelt which is most valued by furriers and other customers, namely, an elongated portion of the pelt back which is relatively narrow and extends from just below the ears to the base of the tail. Obviously, it is of great importance to pelt suppliers that this price-determining back portion be stretched to as great a length as possible while maintaining a width insubstantially greater than that prescribed by buyers.
Historically, maximization of pelt length does not appear to have been a significant factor in the design and fabrication of pelt stretching devices since stretchers previously offered to the trade basically comprise a frame over which the green pelt is drawn into conformity with the general outline of the frame. Heretofore, efforts to optimize pelt elongation appear to have been frustrated by such unfavorable factors as the frame's excessive width; the low magnitude of longitudinal force that could be effectively applied to the pelt; and, the functional inadequacy of various means intended to maintain the hide in its stretched condition.
The type of stretcher most widely used at present is depicted in FIG. 1 and is described in detail hereinafter. Briefly, this popular stretcher comprises a round spring steel rod forming an elongated, three sided, closed frame comprising a slightly modified version of the frame disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,456,764 issued to Corbin. According to Corbin, side-to-side pelt stretching results from the reaction of the diverging flexible legs of his frame to the lateral strain imparted thereto by drawing the pelt downwardly thereover. After a pelt is drawn firmly over the Corbin frame, toothed clips which slide freely along the frame legs and can be made to penetrate the lower portion of the pelt back and belly are pulled downwardly along the legs and frictionally engage the legs for holding the pelt in a stretched condition.
While the Corbin type stretcher of FIG. 1 is employed by many trappers and ranchers, this device has several recognized structural and operational shortcomings, namely:
1. The side-to-side spread of this stretcher construction is fixed and cannot be changed even though narrowing the stretcher width would create an opportunity to gain valuable pelt elongation.
2. The force that can be effectively applied to a pelt for beneficial elongation is significantly limited in two regards; firstly, by the strength and gripping ability of the individual user's fingers which he must use to pull Corbin's holding clips downwardly along the frame legs and secondly, by the total dependence on frictional resistance between the clips and legs to avert subsequent upward slippage of the clips. Moreover, the ability of the user to grip the clips and of the clips in turn to grip the legs may be substantially, if not totally, defeated by a coating of grease usually deposited on the clips and legs from the fatty hide of a green pelt.
3. A pelt holding clip of the Corbin type is typically fabricated by bending a stamped metal blank into a U-shaped channel and providing hide gripping teeth at one channel end and aligned leg-receiving apertures at the opposite end. After only a short period of wear and repeated stressing tending to twist the grip about its leg-penetrated end, the apertured end of the clip arm becomes permanently deformed thereby enlarging and distorting these apertures to such an extent that the clips can no longer grip the frame legs.
4. As best shown in FIG. 1, the Corbin clip points or teeth are insertable into the pelt hide near the base of the tail; and, no further provision is made for securing the tail in an open or spread condition. Consequently, the edges of the tail will usually curl inwardly whereby the moist hide inside the tail overlies itself and forestalls proper drying action by air circulating thereabout. In any area where a moist hide is permitted to overlie itself and to adhere to itself, rotting or other blemishing is inevitable and the pelt is degraded accordingly.
5. After a pelt is mounted upon a stretcher, it may be arranged on wires or racks with a sizeable number of other pelts in a suitable drying atmosphere. Prolonged contact between still moist pelts results in rot damage or blemishes. Since the Corbin-type stretchers do not incorporate means for avoiding pelt-to-pelt contact during such drying process, great care must be used initially to arrange the pelts with correct spacing there between, or some additional separating device must be provided. In either case costs related to the drying process are increased accordingly.
6. Users commonly stack or pile empty stretchers together between uses and find that it is difficult and hazardous to thereafter extract a Corbin-type stretcher from a tangled pile once its sharpened holding clips become interlocked or otherwise foul.
From the preceding recitation of specific problems and failures users of Corbin-type stretchers presently encounter, it will be apparent that an improved construction intended to supercede this troublesome, although popular, device should have at least these objectives and critical characteristics:
1. Stretcher width should be variable and presettable to comply with specifications dictated by pelt buyers.
2. The pelt-drawing member of the stretcher that is longitudinally shiftable relative to the stretcher frame should be located and be specially configured for ready and safe manual gripping so that tensile force applied to the drawing member will effectively achieve optimal pelt elongation and price realization.
3. Locking means for securing the drawing member to the frame should be operable after the pelt is stretched for maximum elongation at a preset width and should be positive, easy to apply and release, and operationally independent of whatever means is employed to preset variably the frame width and should provide compensation for wear between sliding stretcher parts
4. The drawing member should carry mounting means to which the pelt body as well as the spread tail can be readily secured and detached without undue risk of personal injury or pelt damage.
5. The stretcher should incorporate as one of its structural features suitable spacing means to facilitate air circulation between stretchers disposed adjacent one another during the pelt drying operation. Additionally the overall stretcher configuration should be such that empty stretchers can be piled or stacked together randomly without producing troublesome entanglement.
6. An improved stretcher should be simply and ruggedly built, uncomplicated in operation, and low in manufacturing cost.
Varible width stretchers with spaced legs connected by a tranverse pelt-drawing member movable relative to the legs are known in the art; and, a variety of such stretchers is disclosed in these prior U.S. patents:
______________________________________ 752,950 Bowman February 23, 1904 1,954,697 Gibbs April 10, 1934 2,343,968 Fitzgerald March 14, 1944 3,301,028 Perardi January 31, 1967 ______________________________________
The aboveidentified patent to Gibbs and U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,108 issued to Thompson on Jul. 18, 1989, disclose stretchers having special tail holding members.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,654 issued to Baldridge on May 3, 1983, shows a common chain attached to the pelt-drawing cross member for manual application of tensile stress thereto.
The early Bowman patent disclosed the previously known stretcher construction of most interest; however, even if the Bowman teaching is given its broadest possible interpretation, it fails to suggust solutions to all of aforelisted problems with the Corbin-type stretcher.